Baby Einstein Little Einstein DVD, CD, Books & Discovery Cards Review

Baby Einstein is known for its use of classical music, art and language to encourage play and interaction between parents and children.  Babies to older toddlers can benefit not only from the stimulating sights and sounds, but also the exposure to history, culture and beauty.

Favorite DVD: Lullaby Time 19.99 creates a comfortable cozy bonding time with infant, baby and even toddler.  This 30 minute DVD features pictures of moms and babies snuggling and rocking, ocean waves at sunset, fluffy clouds and other peaceful scenes that familiar to children as they are real life, not cartoon characters.  The DVD includes a story and puppet show and the lullabies feature Bach, Brahms, Haydn and Mozart.  The colors are soothing, the real life images intriguing and if mom or dad is not careful the calming quiet lullaby may even put you to sleep. 

Favorite CD The Little Einstein's CD Musical Missions (cost $9.99) features the Little Einstein's theme song as well as music from some of my children's favorite episodes.  The CD includes the Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov; Carmen Suite #1 by Bizet and Hungarian Dance #5 by Brahms.  

Favorite Books: Baby Einstein Babies ($3.99) features faces of babies from art, photography and real life.  Babies as well as toddlers never tire of examining other baby faces as well as these types of books help them learn body recognition.  Other favorite books include Baby Einstein Animal Melodies ($9.99) a board book with push buttons that allow caregiver or child to play the musical sounds made by each of the animals.  The illustrations make recognizing instruments and animals easy and can be an interactive or independent playtime for children.

Discovery Cards ($9.99) are also available to build language skills, identifying nature, and seasons. The cards themselves are laminated and feature a picture and word on the front as well as the same word in different language on the back.  They are designed to be used to develop language and identification skills in children age 1 and up.

My Viewpoint:

DVD Lullaby Time:  Every age appreciates the soothing sights and sounds as well as relaxing story.  This is the latest DVD available by Baby Einstein so I haven't had a chance to use it with newborns, but experience tells me that the relaxing classical lullabies may help both mom and baby to wind down and relax. My older toddler enjoys the soothing sounds while she "rests" and fights off naptime, so at least she rests for a few minutes.            Parenting Magazine recently awarded Lullaby Time their DVD award of the year - and I have to agree, I relax every time I hear the songs and music.

CD:  In Little Einstein's Musical Missions each of the songs, though classical in nature introduce my children to something other than the hip hop dance revolution culture of their older brother and sister as well as bring a smile to their face when they hear the music. It reminds them of their favorite TV episodes of Little Einstein's as well as gives mom a much needed break in the car.  The children love to dance to the music, especially the younger toddler.

Books:  It is hard to choose just one favorite book from the Baby/Little Einstein collection, but I have to admit that board books are my favorites.  The thick pages are easy for toddlers and preschoolers to turn, the illustrations are beautifully completed, the size of the book is just right for little hands and I enjoy that with board books I can either cozy up with the girls or read to them or they can easily occupy themselves with board books.  Pages tear too easily in other children's books especially when a 2 yr old and 1 year old are pulling at them.  My older child loves any book that has to do with night time, moon, stars and the galaxy.  She loves the Little Einstein's Galactic Galaxy hardcover book ($5.99) so that she can study all the stars; it's a great night time book.

Discovery Cards:  I like the concept of having cards that the children and I could look through and use to teach them language skills, everything from learning beginner words to increasing their skills to joining words together to form phrases as well as building upon the skills to create descriptions (for example red apple as opposed to apple).  The cards are very sturdy as they are laminated, but I was disappointed. The concept is great, the use more difficult.  One disappointment was that the pictures are more cartoons in design and I would love to have them more real life images or photography as Little Einstein's does in their DVD's. I also found the children lose interest quickly and appear to learn more language skills from creatively reading and pointing out things of interest in Little Einstein (or any other) books.

Over all, the multimedia products from Baby/Little Einstein's are well designed, colorful, and unique in the use of art, nature and classical forms.  The children love them, but many parents may find the classical music to be a little TOO soothing, I have actually found myself dropping off to sleep while enjoying a DVD with the children.  I prefer the DVD, CD's and books, and really have no use for the cards.  If you are unsure, go to the library where many of the DVD's have been available for me to check out for one week, before you make your big purchase.